Matthew Arnold

Got two days of paddock work for one of the trailway section owners. He wants to put a new fence around the boundary but needs the 6ft+ of Blackthorn, Holly and Elder growth cleared away first. This is the first days work.

The very building blocks of decomposition. The woodchip had only been there 3 days and it already had started to clump together. I shall be watching this thick spread develop over the next few years and documenting any fungi which come up.

On a hand flailing job this morning. Our BCS flail worked fine at the yard but when we got out to the field the left brake wouldnt work. So it took me twice as long to do the job. To make things even worse i found a big roll of chicken wire within 30 minutes of starting to knock the brambles back.

Liking this by Theory of a Deadman. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcmFZ5A8X8&feature=bf_next&list=HL1330458477&lf=mh_lolz]Theory Of A Deadman - "Hurricane" Lyric Video - YouTube[/ame]

A nice little stile repair job. Only took 40 mins to put in between two of us.

In line with the lump of ivy/fencing. We are waiting for the back hoe to come back from the workshop as some muppet put the hydros on backwards and blew the valves. We have a contractor down there but he only has a 3 ton mini digger.

Beleive it or not there is a drain under the big hump of soil we left (hence the backhoe). We want to clear it out as there is a problem with flooding at the end. The water just flows off the road and down the trailway.

Every little helps. Felled a collapsed Elder a few months back and the elderly lady asked if we could scrape back the mud for her. She asked on Friday, we were there at lunch today and scraped back more than she asked for just to make it easier for her. Going to get in there with the backhoe to scrap it even further and remove the stump and concrete post.

Some Bird Cherry blossom with the dew from the night before.

Full crown full of buds. There is a slight sink and woodpecker mark above the butress where the resi is. It is NT owned but the majority of the trees i nthe area have Laetiporus or Fistulina and I.dryadeus and they havent been felled so i suspect this one with be left to its own devices. No targets just other trees.

You did. The only resi on the site.

One of the local gems. Got some stunning Oaks all showing body language.

Nope. A ball thrower.

Was funny as we show them different fungi each week we go. Just before the winds in January we showed them a HC heavily festooned with Australe. We told the students to keep the other students away from it and asked the school to have it fenced off. The day the strongest winds hit it fell and the tree surgeons that came to tidy it up didn't need a chainsaw. It had exploded when it hit the floor and was so light they loaded their Mog up with the entire tree and were still OK to do a small job round the corner.

BBQ Rules BBQ RULES We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion: Routine... (1) The woman buys the food. (2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert .. (3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand. (4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman. Here comes the important part: (5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL. More routine... (6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery. (7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat Important again: (8) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN. More routine... (9) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table. (10) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes. And most important of all: (11) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts. (12) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ' her night off ', and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women

Some serious pollen coming off a Yew. I only gave it a light tap as well.

We are teaching the students that all fungi are not always bad. The majority of them are good and we showed each fungi to keep an eye out for (potentially most dangerous in public and private environments) and showed them pictures of what to look out for regarding the body language of the tree. The one the students couldnt figure out and asked a lot of questions about was Kretz. The majority of questions were why the tree doesn't show signs until it attacks the cambium. We showed them the beech that failed on the grounds and they could see why it is such a dangerous fungi. It was sat very very tight between the butresses and you could just about see crusts poking above ground.

Public school too.

We think it was the australe rot getting to the union and the fact it was a compression fork didnt help. The kretz i think is just eating the rootplate/butresses and the australe is eating the trunk. The remaining trunk is going to be fenced off 2 metres out from the fall zone and is going to be made child/teenage proof. It will be left to natures devices. If it dies it can be left as a dead wood mono. If it grows it can be managed to become a pollard over the next 10 years. I have discussed about doing a combination of fracture pruning (ripping growth points off) and conventional pruning to see which works best and go from there.

16-18 and they really enjoyed it as we put in some novelty pictures of us at work. We have 4 students from the school on the course (2 from year 1 and vice versa for years 2). It isnt very instense but everytime they say a common name we ask for the latin name just to keep their brains working.

It was and by microscope on the school grounds too. We had a fungi and trees talk at the school too with the students learning environmental conservation. We showed them the basics of trees and different fungi and how trees react then showed the close ups, extreme close ups and then the microscopic shots to the second year students.

It was a contractor who had a HND in Forestry and Arb and had very very recently done a 3 PTI cert and passed. He failed to spot the Kretz in the butresses and the basal flares and bracket lesions caused by Ganoderma australe that had been knocked off by the school children.

Will let my bosses know on monday who can let the TO know as it is in a conservation area and has TPO. It is in a sheltered spot from the prevailing winds. There was a large Beech on the school ground which had just been professional surveyed and was given the ok went into self destruct mode and removed all its branches then snapped at the very tight union. The council who own the site went health and safety crazy and wanted the remaining 6 metre trunk felling but i told them it would make a nice pollard so they just cleared the fallen material and will leave it for nature to take its course.

Will do. The majority of them are just rubbing but will tell the contractor to leave any welded branches as not to create unnessecary wounds.

1 - No targets within falling zone. There are two paths that cross near the the tree but they are well out of the target zone. 2 - The cavity extends about 2 feet upwards and 6 inches down. I would estimate there to be about 8 inches of sound wood to the right of the wound and about 12 inches of sound wood to the left. We are planning on having it reduced by about 10% all over. It still has a very healthy crown so we dont want to take too much off. The second tree we shall be having any crossing branches removed and any dead wood fracture pruned. The very lowest limb we will be having reduced by about 15% as it is a "sunseeker" so we dont want that one to fail as it would leave a big wound.